


The Struggle is So Real

by atomeek



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-09
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-12 10:35:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2106480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomeek/pseuds/atomeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That University AU in which Bran and Jojen are best friends and boyfriends and totally in love and they never actually do any work for said university. </p><p>Or alternatively, romanticizing post-secondary education through the imagined interactions of two fictional characters who simultaneously share platonic emotions and a homosexual relationship together. Oh, and they can travel into each other's dreams—I mean what?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clair de Lune

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bunch of self-indulgent drabbles about these two cute dorks. No set storyline, just short scenes all from the same 'verse. This one has already been posted on my writing tumblr a while ago so apologies to those who have already read it but I have an essay due on Monday and it's eating my soul so I'm procrastinating by re-posting this here and officially starting a drabble collection--blegh.
> 
> Inspiration: _Clair de Lune (Them Jeans Edit)_ by Flight Facilities

Bran was finishing up his Thursday morning lecture’s reading when his phone rang, buzzing as he always kept it on silent during the school week.

“Hello?” He said, distracted as his eyes scanned the rest of the sentence he’d been reading.

“You’re not asleep yet,” Jojen’s voice was muffled, as if he was speaking with his cheek pressed against a pillow. “I went to the forest and you weren’t there.”

Bran smiled, even though it was four in the morning and he had class in five hours and he still had fifty more pages of his textbook to read. He smiled because that’s what people did when their boyfriends called in the middle of night, just to know you were there.

“I know,” his voice strained as his stretched, one arm after the other so he would be able to hold his phone up. “I just have to do this reading for tomorrow. I’m so behind.”

“You’re always behind,” Jojen mumbled and if Bran didn’t know him better, he would think he sounded a little petulant. “What’s another day?”

Bran laughed, a little at himself since he really only had himself to blame for procrastinating, and a little at Jojen because this was Jojen, being sulky. “Another week and it’s going to be my midterm, Jo.”

He doesn’t speak even though Bran could hear him breathing, shallow and even, and then, “I’m in love with you.”

It’s a little sudden but it’s not shocking, not when Jojen’s said it every way except straight up, and even then he never confined it to three words.

“I know,” said Bran, as softly as Jojen’s breathing had become through the phone. If he could, he would freeze this conversation and live this night forever, a thousand times over, if he could. “I know I’m in love with you too.”

Jojen stayed on the phone, and even though they didn’t speak, Bran knew he hadn’t fallen asleep, at least not deep enough to dream like he usually did. It was only when Bran did, at 5:30 in the morning, that Jojen did too, materialising in the forest, their combined dreamscape. 

“You’re late,” he smiled, a green breeze whipping leaves through his sandy hair as they stood together in the clearing.

“I know,” Bran grinned, grabbing his hand as the wind stops, swirling to a rest at their feet like a tamed wolf. “But what’s being late to forever?”

Jojen rolled his eyes, “It’s not forever if we have class in three hours.” He laid a kiss on Bran’s lips, short and fleeting like how dreams always seemed to feel like. Bran chased after it, the kiss and Jojen, a dream in his own right. 

“It is if I get to see you again in three hours,” Bran mumbled, lips to lips, a secret passing back and forth between the two of them. “It’s forever if I get to see my dreams come true.”

“Always,” Jojen replied, his entire form growing hazy as if turning into fog. “Our dreams always come true.”

And then Bran awoke, dragged from the dream by a familiar hand and a familiar kiss to his lips.


	2. We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, surprise I'm actually not dead ahaha...but yeah, this will be updated super sporadically because life sucks a lot. 
> 
> Inspiration: _We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow_ by Soko

“What are you going to be for Halloween?” Bran asked, spinning slowly around on his desk chair. He should be doing his readings or starting the essay that would be due in two weeks or a million other things for his classes but it had been surprisingly sunny when he got out of class and Jojen had brought hot coffee straight to his dorm and well, that was the end of that.

“You should be the three-eyed crow,” Jojen didn’t open his eyes from where he was laid out over the length of Bran’s bed, one leg dangling over the edge.

“What?” Bran let out a short laugh and stopped spinning, bracing one hand against his desk. “Oh, you mean the thing we were chasing in your dreams?”

Jojen looked over at him then, propping himself up on his elbows, and the intensity of his dark green stare made Bran want to smooth out the lines between his brows and kiss him until they both fell asleep. “The three-eyed crow is really important, Bran. It led you to where you needed to be so that you could realize your powers. And you are very powerful, Bran.”

“Was I powerful enough to be king?” Bran asked, genuinely curious. He only knew of this other life from what Jojen told him, what Jojen had dreamt of and most times, it just felt like the basis of a fantastic story.

Other times when Jojen’s brows lowered and his eyes darkened like it did now, Bran felt a strange pull at the back of his head; like trying to remember a memory he no longer had but knowing that, at one point, it was at the forefront of his mind.

“More than king,” Jojen said after a pause. He sat up, slowly lowering his feet to the standard checkered tiles of Bran’s dorm and never dropping eye contact with Bran. “You were more powerful than any of those that wanted to be king then, and there were a lot of them.”

Bran dropped his chin into his hand thoughtfully, “I think I much rather be a knight then. Being a king sounds like too much work.” He scrunched up his nose and Jojen laughed.

“Speaking of work,” his gaze trailed pointedly to Bran’s tower of textbooks. They had stacked their empty coffee cups at the top so that they balanced precariously on each other, like a tower.

Bran let out a loud groan, slumping back into his chair, boneless. He glared at his boyfriend, and demanded, “Only if you stay.”

Jojen hummed, closing his eyes as he mimed making a decision and Bran took advantage to roll off his chair and on top of him. Even if things like this never surprised Jojen, Bran still found just the physical contact of feeling Jojen, solid, with his own hands, to be immensely reassuring. 

He wouldn’t call it a fear but for as long as he’s known Jojen, Bran have had this irrational feeling that Jojen might fade away, slowly but surely, like futilely trying to recall last night’s dream in the face of morning only for it to slip away as the sun rose higher in the brightening sky.

It was a feeling that ate at the back of Bran’s mind, a dark stain that smelt of death and a world of terrible things, the basis of all his nightmares. 

But when his skin met Jojen’s, it was like a surrealist’s dream, their bodies melding together until every breath that each took was through the other’s lungs and their heartbeats drummed as one.

Like it did now, with their fingers laced and their legs tied and their lips locked together, it was easy to forget that darkening feeling at the back of his mind when Jojen laid front and center, solid.

They separated with a shared sigh and for a long time, all Bran could see were the capillary veins on Jojen’s closed eyelids, twitching like running rivers on a map with every little movement, every breath he took from Bran’s lips.

“I’ll stay,” Jojen mouthed into his mouth. Bran grabbed onto the back of his neck, as if that would make sure he truely stayed. “Through dreams and nightmares and an entire lifetime, I’ll stay with you.”

Bran hummed his contentment, tilted his head and kissed Jojen, again and again and again.


End file.
